"For the devil smelt a rat and perceived that if the languages were revived, there would be a hole knocked in his kingdom which he might have difficulty stopping. Since he was unable, however, to prevent their being revived, his aim is now to keep them on such slender rations that they will of themselves decline and pass away. They are like an unwelcome guest who has come to his house; so he determines to show him such meager entertainment that he will not tarry long. Very few of us, my dear sirs, see through this wicked plot of the devil."
The first school that I taught at met in a warehouse in rural Virginia that had walls thrown up to divide the space into classrooms. We had animal problems often. Snakes, mice, and bugs were ever present. One morning, we walked into work to a nauseating stench that filled the building. After some searching, we found a mouse that had died in a corner, likely days earlier. As soon as our head of school located it, she got it out of the building. We wanted it gone.
Luther says, “The devil smelled a rat.” That rat in Luther’s day was the revival of the biblical languages, especially in Christian schools. The devil wanted it gone. Think of that. The devil wanders to and fro over the whole earth and is the father of lies were to stroll past BCS at 9:55 A.M. during the school week, there would be a nauseating stench beginning to fill the nostrils of that ancient foe. If he would peer into the windows of Fellowship Hall, he would find that this stench is your students studying New Testament Greek. Satan hates that your children are studying the New Testament in its original language.
Why? Luther says in another place in the same article, "And let us be sure of this: we shall not long preserve the Gospel without the languages. The languages are the sheath in which this sword of the Spirit is contained; they are the casket in which we carry this jewel; they are the vessel in which we hold this wine; they are the larder in which this food is stored; and as the Gospel itself says, they are the baskets in which we bear these loaves and fishes…”
A Protestant minister was once asked, “Where was your church before the Reformation?” He responded, “Where was your face before you washed it?” The truth of the Gospel had been covered in dust and mire at Luther’s time. Discernible if you squinted, but not by any means clear. In a sense, the revival of the biblical languages was the great well-spring that began to clear away the dust of confusion and the mire of corruption. Satan’s hatred of Christ and of the Gospel itself is directly tied to His hatred of the study of the biblical languages as it is through those languages that the Gospel is preserved.
In Luther’s words, the languages are “…the sheath in which the sword of the Spirit is contained,” drawn to combat every error and defend every precious truth. They are members in the armory of heaven used to bring about the devil’s demise. Luther says that Satan looks to keep the languages on “slender rations” and that he looks to give them “meager entertainment,” because they are tools to knock a great hole in Satan’s kingdom. I believe this totally and sincerely. I hope that our students will see it as well. They will be tempted this year to keep Biblical Greek on “slender rations” and to give it “meager entertainment.” With God’s help, I pray that instead they will feast on God’s Word in its original language and delight in its company. When things get difficult in studying the biblical languages it is important to remember the eternal realities and purposes tied to learning these languages.
God wrote the New Testament in Greek, revealing fully and clearly there the will of God for our salvation. Satan hates the study of these languages, and if our students can see Christ and the Christian life just a bit more clearly through the study of Greek, which they will if they are diligent, all of the toil is worth it. This year, let us study well to the glory of God and in defiance of the devil.